Harkevich
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman
I believe this was Blondie's first time playing a caster other than Stryker 1:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Centurion
- Lancer
- Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
- Firefly
Gunmages
Gunmage Captain Adept
Pre-game:
Rulebook scenario with two zones. I won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side with a useful forest.
Deployment:
Blondie put his battlegroups on my left, except the Lancer who was positioned centrally, with the Gunmages on my right.
The Nyss went behind the right forest to shoot into the zone. Harkevich was behind the central forest where he would be able to move up in relative safety; Beast 09 stayed close to him while the Decimator was positioned to toe the zone. Alexia went near a trench where she could enjoy some safety from ranged attacks while slowly feeding Risen into the zone. A&H&V were positioned relatively centrally, but a bit farther away from the Stealth-ignoring Gunmage Captain. The Marksman was in the forest where he would still benefit from concealment even if the Gunmage Captain tried to get to him.
Round 1:
The Gunmages ran onto the hill, getting into the right zone early. The Firefly entered the other zone. Stryker hid behind his heavies, making sure there was no gap this time. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Stryker.
My Nyss Hunters ran into the forest. The Decimator took up a spot in the left zone where he could aim and shoot anything in the zone next turn. Harkevich kept the forest between him and Stryker, with Beast 09 getting in front (in base contact). The Risen spread out to minimize the effect of electroleaps. Alexia created a Thrall who ran onto a hill close to the GMCA and Firefly. A&H advanced and Stealthed.
Round 2:
The Firefly (who had no focus as he was out of the Junior's control range) tried to shoot down the Thrall and whiffed.
I think it was the Junior Warcaster who ended up killing the Thrall. The GMCA started to reposition towards my right; I think she took a shot at the Decimator and failed to break armour. The Centurion entered the zone and activated his Polarity Field. Five Gunmages had LOS to Nyss Hunters; they needed 7s to hit and proceeded to roll five hits. Sigh. The Lancer walked behind the forest.
I loaded up Beast 09, cast Mobility, and walked him up into axe range of the lancer. I figured losing two cortex boxes was worth it to make two boosted damage rolls with the axe, then I could reposition back behind the forest. Unfortunately I carelessly entered Rowdy's counter-charge range. The attack just took off Beast's axe.
Beast 09 did what he could to Rowdy with his fist, earning a Retaliatory Strike. I could have left him there, but decided to risk a free strike to reposition out of the forest; this would mean at least one jack would need to come right through the forest to finish him, which would make him easier to deal with, but also it would leave Rowdy unengaged: this would allow my Marksman to cripple his movement, which would be a problem for him in a forest. Sadly the free strike hurt:
And then of course this happened:
Nice going Marksman. Sigh. I'm pretty sure it's statistically unlikely how often she whiffs the easy rolls. Anyway, the Decimator did some damage to the Centurion and pushed him backwards, but the GMCA stopped him from being pushed completely out of the zone. Not that it mattered. Alexia created another Thrall who charged the Firefly and whiffed his attack roll. The remaining four Nyss grunts walked up and did a single CRA into a Gunmage, and missed. Holt aimed and Zephyred into range, gunning two down at last. Aiyana just kept them stealthed.
Blondie scored a point for the right zone.
Round 3:
The Gunmages fired into the Nyss again, but fortunately their rolls were not as hot this time and they only killed the one. Someone killed the Thrall; it might have been the Junior again. The Lancer walked around the forest and finished off Beast 09. Rowdy ran as close to Harkevich as he could, while the Centurion ran towards the Decimator. I don't remember the Firefly shooting anything?
Stryker then popped his feat. The Centurion and Firefly shuffled forwards and attacked the Decimator. Rowdy was just out of range of Harkevich so he walked over to the zone instead. The Lancer killed Holt. Blondie scored a second point for the right zone.
Harkevich held on to his focus. Alexia charged the Firefly and managed to kill it with one Risen to spare. The Marksman finally crippled Rowdy's movement, allowing Aiyana to easily land Kiss before Harkevich to charged in. Both Alexia and Harkevich were rolling hot; Rowdy fell to Hark's second blow. I popped feat for protection. The Decimator charged the Centurion sideways, taking off it's shield and repositioning into base contact with Hark for the defensive buff. The Nyss Hunter took two aiming CRAs into the Gunmages, killing two. Blondie was up to three points now.
Round 4:
The Centurion softened up the Decimator as best he could with no allocated focus. The GMCA landed a Flare on Harkevich, dropping his DEF. Stryker Overloaded for three dice, rolling a 13 to bring his to P+S up to 28. He used Velocity for two focus, then charged the Decimator and took him out easily, leaving him in range of a DEF 12 Harkevich. I believe his second attack left Hark on something like -10 damage, and he had Focus left over.
Post-mortem:
Damn but Stryker hits crazy hard! MAT 7 is an issue, but the Gunmage Captain actually helps a lot with that. Blondie's been thinking about trying Stryker 2 for a while, but I suggested he hold off for a while as supposedly Stryker 1 is a good caster to learn the game with. Well, I'd say he's definitely gotten the hang of the game at this point. Although he did run the Firefly out of the Journeyman's control range right from the start... I think he should probably stick to a Hunter on the Journeyman.
Effectively losing Beast 09 to the counter-charge put me in a really bad spot. You would think I'd be used to working around it by now, but nope, I always forget to take it into account.
Holt FINALLY did something this game. Technically he did as much work as my entire 19 point Nyss Hunter unit in fact. I really should have picked the other side of the table; that hill kept Blondie's Gunmages alive and scoring, while the forest wouldn't have - not with the Nyss Hunters having Hunter.
I had the same problem this game as I often do with my Marksman: I can't decide what to focus fire on, plus of course the whiffing of important rolls. High RAT and 3 damage to the column of my choice makes her shot useful against pretty much any target. Shame the Marksman is only FA 1.
It was fun taking out a warjack with Alexia, but I'm not sure keeping her out of corpse-collection range of the Nyss was worth it - if she had been on the other side she could have jammed that zone, maybe jammed the Gunmages, or possibly gone in on the Lancer (much better than risking the cortex on an 18 point warjack at any rate). I either need to bring more infantry to be able to contest two zones at once, or some cheaper jacks, or just tougher jacks (i.e. clamjacks). Although against Positive Charge I'm not sure even clamjacks would last long.
If I want to make use of Harkevich I really need to leverage Reposition and his Feat better. I'm not exactly sure how though. Even then he seems boring. I'm probably going to switch to someone who actually does stuff soon; Strakhov 2 is quite tempting, and I've been talking about running Karchev to increase my armour cracking.
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